MK1 original lights pics & measurements

[Stephane Goria]

Gentlemen,

Having some time today, I took the opportunity to take various shots of the original lights for our beloved GT's.

These are the lights for the MK1.

I do not think this has been posted before, so I hope it may help those looking for the correct lights or those who want to know what are the original measurements to help find a subsitute to the original without going too far in terms of look.

A specific mention to the headlight (TP21SP). As you can see from the pics and also on the original catalogue, these are convex not concave...

Greetings

Stephane

 

[Richard]

This is terrific sutff... thanks richard

 

[Stephane Goria]

Thanks.

Stephane

 

[Randy V]

Valuable information....

Thank you Stephane!!!

 

[Geert-Jan]

Stephane, thanks for this info.

Are you sure that all MK 1 used the same lights?
I thought not only Marshal but also Cibie were used.
And couldn't it be that the Cibies were concave?

 

[Stephane Goria]

Hello,

As far as I know, all original MK1's went equipped with the marchal TP21SP headlights, thus convex.

My belief is the CIBIEs lights went used as replacements parts as they were and still are very easy to find. A lot of french cars went equipped with : renault 10,12,16 etc...and are exactly the same measurements, BUT concave.

Also, as these cars are still used in Turkey, Africa etc....you still have them manufactured for these markets.

The story, I have been told for why the TP21SP are not more manufactured and why all replacements parts are CIBIE, excepting the merge between cibie & marchal is that the TP21SP is a centered beam. It doesn't restrict the beam to the left or right of the road according to your local regulation (driving on the left or right side of the road) and thus Marchal/CIBIE adapted their lenses to the regulations.
I believe this to be true as the TP21SP were originally mounted on the MATRA and few years after, the replacement light was concave lense cibie. I must mention that there have been a short period with a marchal LHD convex light (right after the TP21SP), but it didn't last and are very hard to find too.

I have a set of these intermediary marchal lights, if it is of interest I will take a shot of them.

Anyway, to get back to the original subject, when I look at my GT40s books, all the pics of original GTs I can see show the TP21SP (esay to recognize with the big scudo at center and the M inside).

But, as I am far to be an expert, and because there are, on this forum, people with a very knoledge, they may validate or invalidate what I wrote, so let's hope that somebody can bring its knoledge to this.

Not Marchal but CIBIE headlight with the right measurements and CONVEX can still be purchased here in France in various shops for an average of 180-200 euros a pair. I mean obviously brand new pairs as they are still manufactured.

Greetings

Stephane

 

[Rich E.]

Somebody please sticky this. Thank you for the info.